The New York Times once asked Rabbi Moshe Feinstein how he became a posek hador, one of the generation’s foremost authorities on Jewish law. Rabbi Feinstein answered that, “people came and asked me questions and they liked what I said and it was accepted, and then more people came and eventually I became widely accepted as a posek.”

There is great concern in Haredi circles following a severe deterioration in the condittion of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who has been hospitalized for the past six months in Shaarey Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem.